Still on Pinkies

[Lura]

I bought a male creamsicle cornsnake from Kathy Love as a hatchling last August. He is a great pet and has never refused a meal. However, he cannot seem to digest large meals and seems to be a bit small. He is my first snake, so I have been comparing him to other pictures online.

He was originally fed pinks, but when he grew a bit larger I began feeding him fuzzies. He digested the first three or four perfectly fine, but on his third one (which was no larger or smaller than the previous ones), he passed an unusually large stool and experienced a very bad prolapse. After a visit to the vet in which he had to have stitches to keep his rectum from falling back out as it healed. After he had recovered from this operation and his stitches were removed, he was switched back to pinkies. After a few pinky meals, I fed him a fuzzy. Once again, he passed an unusually large stool and had another prolapse. This one wasn't as severe and the vet simply placed it in a hypertonic solution to shrink it to the point where it could go back into the vent. He has been on pinkies ever since and hasn't had another prolapse. This occured in January.

I am afraid that, by still eating only pinkies, he is not receiving the correct amount of nutrients he needs. He's very active, has always had full sheds, and is digesting the pinkies very well. Overall he seeems to be in good health. However, he was hatched in either June or July and is only about 18 inches long.

Should I use a vitamin supplement to help him get nutrients he might not be getting with pinkies alone at this stage? If so, what brand/type should I use? Also, when should I try switching him onto (small) fuzzies? I'm kind of afraid to do it because I don't want to stress him out again with another prolapse and trip to the vet.

Thank you so much for your help,
~ Lura

 

[Simon]

Well to be honest, some corns grow faster than others.

The largest yearling that I have is actually adult size and breedable (but of course I am not going to breed her yet)

I also have some that are taking down 2 pinkies a week and growing so slow that I don't think that it's alright to feed it a fuzzy...cause the fuzzy is even bigger than the snake at least 2 times~~~

So some do grow bigger and faster than others.

If you are worrying about it not getting the right amount of nutrient maybe you would want to dip your pinky in calcuim and increase the amount of calcium that it's recieving from just the pinkies.

Since it can pass out pinkies without too much trouble than pinkies is what it should be getting.

Doing more harm to the animal by giving it too large of a prey wont be too much help~~

So I would recommand dipping calcuim pinkies to the snake~

oh you have a very pretty cream there!
It's absolutely georgous!

 

[Lura]

Thank you very much!

I mainly was worried about the calcium. He is also my first snake, so I was unsure if his growth rate was normal, as all I have to compare him to are people on this message board (and some of their yearlings are looking pretty big!)

Once again, thanks! I feel much better now.

 

[MegF.]

Why don't you try contacting Kathy Love and see if she has any suggestions. I'm sure she's come across this problem before, and since you did business with her, you might be able to get answers directly.